


diphylleia curse

by caleyedoscope



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M, taemin eats magic, taemin is also a fairy prince
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11172777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caleyedoscope/pseuds/caleyedoscope
Summary: Jinki is a witch that likes to experiment. Minho is a wizard that needs help breaking a curse.





	diphylleia curse

Jinki was projecting his consciousness to the other side of Seoul (attempting to get a good look at a suspicious cloud of green smoke) when he heard the door to his shop open, the charm he had attached to it sounding out a series of bells. Four chimes meant it was a wizard and there was a fifth ding only Jinki could hear which meant that this wizard was visiting the shop for the first time.

Resigned, Jinki pulled himself back to his body, standing up from his couch in the back room and making his way to the front of his shop. He did need to make money, once and awhile.

Jinki didn’t get many wizards at his shop. He was a witch, after all, and his shop catered to his own kind, selling his own charms and potions in addition to stocking ingredients. So usually the only wizards that stopped by were ones that knew he could order things for them, like specialized wood for staffs, or large quantities of charcoal or chalk for their circles. Wizards were often assholes, and Jinki didn’t particularly like dealing with them but they were usually quite rich and paid whatever commission and fees Jinki tacked onto his orders.

“Hello?”

Jinki pasted a smile onto his face as he rounded a corner. “Hi, sorry, I was just—oh. Uh.“

This was not a wizard needing a new staff or charmed chalk. This was Choi Minho. Choi Minho, the most daring wizard of the times. Choi Minho, who went after all the dark wizards and always won. Choi Minho, who usually only stepped out into the world to arrest magical criminals. Choi Minho, who was even more handsome in person than he was on the magical broadcasts. Choi Minho, who was incredibly intimidating with his wizard staff in hand, the aquamarine at the top of of it glowing a little, reacting to the magic of Jinki’s shop.

“Hello,” Choi Minho said, “are you Lee Jinki?”

“Yes?” Jinki squeaked, trying to think back on his week, wondering if he’d accidentally done something illegal. “Yes,” he said, clearing his throat. “Sorry, yes, that’s me.”

Choi Minho gave him a brilliant smile and Jinki felt momentarily dazed, _shit, is his smile charmed?_ He was inexplicably drawn to it.

“Do you have a moment? A friend recommended I stop by to see if you’d be willing to help with a…problem I’m having.”

Jinki could not imagine what sort of a problem Choi Minho could not solve—what sort of problem he thought _Jinki_ could solve—but he found himself nodding, gesturing to the small table in the corner that he used for clients. “You can put your staff against the wall there. No one will touch it—it’s spelled to only return belongings to their rightful owners.”

He set out clean mugs and wiggled his fingers, liquid filling the porcelain under his command, lavender steam rising from Minho’s cup and light pink from Jinki’s.

“Thank you,” Minho said, and he took a sip. “This is delicious, what is it?”

Jinki shrugged, “Tea. But with a pleasing flavor potion—it tastes a little like something you’re craving and a little like something you need.”

Minho’s mouth quirked and Jinki tried very hard not to stare. “I didn’t know there was such a potion.”

“I invented it,” Jinki said, feeling a tiny stab of pride as Minho looked impressed. One of the charms by his counter (wooden and in the shape of a star) cooed, reacting to the thud of Jinki’s heart, and he shot a look at it until it quieted. “How can I help the great and powerful Choi Minho?”

The wizard laughed. “It’s just Minho, though I can’t say I don’t appreciate the praise.” He took another sip of the potion, peering down at it before speaking. “There’s an enchantment I’m having trouble identifying. Actually, it might be a hex. None of my witches have ever seen anything like it and my friend—Changmin, maybe you’ve heard of him—he mentioned he came here once with something similar and you were able to not only identify the spell but make it less….volatile.”

Jinki hummed. “I remember him. Do you have the object with you?”

“Well,” Minho said. He took another sip, and Jinki noted the steam of his potion turning from lavender to yellow. Yellow was usually not a good sign. Someone whose tea steamed yellow was usually quite anxious. “It’s not an object.”

“Sorry?”

Jinki’s heart sunk as he watched Minho set the mug down and start to roll up the sleeve on his right arm. The charm that been cooing earlier started buzz, rattling with energy, clearly very displeased with the magic it was sensing. Jinki didn’t bother shushing it.

Pressed to Minho’s skin, right above the pulse point in his wrist, was a mark, the purple color so dark it was almost black. And its shape was telling: lines and circles twisted around each other, some thin, some thick. Jinki had never seen anything like it outside of his books.

“Is it a hex you’re familiar with?”

Jinki frowned. He got up, striding to the shelves on the other side of the shop and pulling off a few bottles of ingredients, grabbing a potion he’d just made to combat dark magic. On a whim, he snatched the unruly charm as well, and ignored its angry hissing.

“Is that…sentient?” Minho eyed the star charm warily.

Jinki snorted. “Hardly. A friend from my coven made it for me, because he thinks I’m not smart enough to recognize real danger. I imagine he’ll be here soon, with all the fuss it’s been making. _Hush,_ ” he ordered, and watched with a little satisfaction as it quieted again. “Every time I try to undo the enchantment, he comes and recasts it. I gave up getting rid of it because it’s less exhausting that way.”

“I’m not authorized to show this to anyone except you.”

“Well, I might need help to get rid of this, so I suggest you get authorization real quick.”

“So it’s a hex, then?”

Jinki very carefully lifted a snapdragon leaf from a bottle and with his thumb and forefinger, rested it against the mark. Nothing happened for a second and then it started to smoke and crack, and then it started to burn. There wasn’t flame, but the edges glowed the same dark purple, eating away at the leaf and Jinki flicked it onto the floor, stomping the embers out before it could reach his fingers.

“It’s not a hex. It’s a curse.”

“What kind of curse is it?”

“The Skeleton Flower Curse. It kills you, slowly and painfully. Tell me how you’ve been feeling.”

Minho looked a little paler than he had a few minutes ago. “Tired, but I haven’t been able to sleep. I can’t eat much, though I’m able to drink water.”

That went along with Jinki’s suspicion. “This curse—it’s very specific. It keeps a person awake, makes sure they can’t keep food down. You’ll start getting random pains in your body, your skin will start to disintegrate and your muscles atrophy. You’ll go blind and deaf and lose the rest of your senses one by one. It will literally turn you into just a skeleton.”

Minho looked like he was going to throw up and Jinki didn’t blame him.

“But I can break it. Probably. I’ll need my coven to help.”

“ _Probably_ ,” Minho said, weakly.

Jinki should have left that out, maybe. “I’m very good at this, Choi Minho. I haven’t yet met a curse I couldn’t break. You came to the right witch.”

 _Witches,_ Jinki corrected himself, as the wards outside his shop started humming and the charm on the table flipped in excitement at the proximity of its maker. It was the only warning they got before the door flew open, nearly busting off its hinges.

“Lee Jinki!”

“It’s fine, everything is fine. _I’m_ fine, don’t burn anything”

The charm shrieked in a very sarcastic manner (it was probably ratting him out, the little shit) and Kim Kibum pointed the ball of fire hovering over his hand at Jinki’s face. “I thought you’d blown something up! I thought you were getting cursed! I thought— _who is this_?”

“Choi Minho. He’s already dying so you don’t have to kill him.”

Kibum peered at Minho’s face—the wizard managed a tiny smile, even with the fire dangerously close to burning him—before Kibum’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh. Oh wow. Hello. I didn’t expect— _what is on your arm?_

“A problem we need to fix,” Jinki said. “Kibummie, please calm down. Sit. Have something to drink.”

The steam of Kibum’s tea started out pale yellow, so Jinki waited until it turned a happy pink before launching into the things about Minho’s curse he had already learned.

“We’re going to need Taemin.”

“Who is Taemin?” Minho asked.

“Taemin’s a fairy. He eats magic…curses, usually, but those are so rare nowadays he isn’t picky.”

“He used to also eat the people that were cursed because he couldn’t separate the two,” Jinki said. “Well, not eat. Drink.”

Minho choked. “What?”

“He doesn’t do that anymore, though. It’s a little complicated and honestly, you’re not in our coven so it’s none of your business. Just know Taemin will suck that thing right out of you.”

“Suck?” Minho asked, sounding slightly faint. “I’m—wait, you’re calling a murderous fairy to break the curse?”

“Taemin’s a companion to another witch in our coven and quite harmless, don’t worry.”

But they had preparation to do before then and Kibum was already setting about it, pulling out a stove top Jinki used for potion demonstrations and a copper pot. It was one of Jinki’s favorite pots, the wooden handles screwed to the side worn with use, the color of the copper vibrant, the bottom blackened from flame. All of Jinki’s best potions were made in this pot.

“Did you order more corpse flower seeds? We’re going to need your distillery set.”

“In the back. I’ll get the ingredients, you call Jonghyun.”

Eating a curse required several steps. The first, was to make sure the curse was concentrated in one part of the body. Taemin used to just suck a person dry of their blood, because curses were often attached to the heart so that it could spread easily, like poison. So in order to avoid that, Kibum would use a paint with some particular ingredients to draw the curse back to the mark on Minho’s wrist.

The second step was to separate the curse and the body. That required a potion that not only had to be brewed but also distilled, and then brewed again, with more ingredients. And the third step—Taemin carefully sucking it out of a person’s skin—usually took a few hours, depending on its strength but also Taemin’s hunger.

Jinki’s storage was precisely organized for fear of ingredients accidentally touching one another and causing a strange magical phenomena. He hadn’t been a stickler about it until he’d mislabeled wild maypop and blue passionflower and woken the next morning to a strange new breed of flower that had grown into the ground and covered the floor boards of his storage room in a blue slime. It had been a bitch to clean, although Jinki had later discovered the slime was very good for certain healing potions.

Arms full of supplies, Jinki came back out into the store front to find all of his equipment set up and Kibum grinding dried watermelon radish for the paint.

“More tea?” Jinki asked, “we’re going to be here all night.”

“That would be wonderful.” Jinki could feel Minho’s eyes on him as he flicked his fingers, moving tea from one of his containers in the back to the mug, spelling it to warm. “You’re a strange witch, Lee Jinki. You don’t speak spells, you create new potions, and you have a fairy that eats magic _._ I don’t know what to think of you, besides being a little awed at your skill.”

Jinki had to use magic to keep from blushing. “High praise, coming from the great Choi Minho.”

“The Bureau could use someone like you.”

Kibum snorted before Jinki could. “He’d cause more problems than he would offer solutions.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jinki said.

“I’m sure we could work something out,” Minho said.

This time, the blush was too strong to control. The wizard’s smile was so genuine (and so lovely, so warm and inviting,) Jinki almost said yes. Honestly, Minho’s face _had_ to be charmed. Jinki refused to accept any other explanation.

“I’m happy here, thank you.”

Jinki took a deep breath, shaking his head clear to focus on the potion. He started by boiling a quarter liter of distilled water, a whole clove of garlic, a crush clove of garlic. The he added blue honey wart, fernleaf fiddle neck, clove oil, lavender oil, dried seeds from a sunzilla flower, and a sprig of rosemary from the garden outside.

He was carefully measuring frog’s blood when his wards tingled and a moment later, Taemin and Jonghyun materialized in the room in a puff of glittering fairy dust, making Kibum shout with fright and almost drop the cucumber seeds he was getting ready to soak in melted butter.

Taemin looked every inch a fairy, with pink hair and eyes shifting through every color in the rainbow. For a split second, right before Taemin realized there was someone not from the coven in the room, Jinki could see the line of shimmering magic that tied him and Jonghyun together before it disappeared.

“Sorry,” Jonghyun said, before Kibum could start to yell. “You said it was an emergency and we were in Busan. So.”

“Um,” Minho said, “did you just…teleport? Do you have a permit for that?”

“Now isn’t really the time,” Kibum said.

Teleporting was rare for witches. It was usually wizards that could do that sort of thing. But…

“Fairies don’t need permits,” Jinki said, “as I’m sure you’re well aware. Jonghyun, Taemin, this is Choi Minho.”

Jonghyun was in Minho’s face a second later. “Ooh, the great and powerful Choi Minho! I can’t believe you managed to get cursed. Actually, it was quite lucky. Taemin was getting hungry and I was just about to feed him when you called.”

“I can feed myself,” Taemin huffed.

“Lucky isn’t the word I’d use,” Minho said, “what kind of fairy are you?”

“Taemin is my fairy prince,” Jonghyun said.

“I may have forgot to mention he was royalty,” Jinki said, as Taemin looked unbelievably offended that hadn’t been made clear. “But it’s not really important. Tea?”

“You know I’m always up for your tea,” Jonghyun said. “Taemin, sit and examine the curse.”

The fairy knelt instead, putting his lips to Minho’s wrist, just below the mark, and kissed at it. “Aren’t you a mean little bugger of a curse. Haven’t had anything like you in awhile. You’re going to taste _so good_.”

Kibum made a retching noise in the background. “Some of us don’t want to hear that.”

“Some people think it’s cute,” Jonghyun said, and wove his fingers into Taemin’s pink hair, tugging perhaps a bit harsher than necessary; glittery fairy dust floated to the floor. “I happen to think it’s quite hot.”

Jinki held up a hand, thinking of a particular silencing enchantment and casting it in the blink of an eye. “Enough. You are all going to sip your drinks quietly while I focus on this potion and make sure it doesn’t turn into a poison.” He eyed Minho. “Unless you want to die?”

Minho shook his head.

“Wonderful.”

Distilling was always tricky. The flame had to be an exact temperature, the flasks and condensers set at just the right angle. It usually took forever, but Jinki had developed a spell that sped up the process. He very carefully laid the groundwork for it, hands hovering as guided the magic through the process and in moments had a perfectly distilled potion.

He had to pull out another pot and very carefully boiled it down, thickening it and adding three corpse flower seeds that were precisely the same size.

He lifted his silencing enchantment and turned to find Kibum carefully painting Minho’s arm in long strokes, drawing the curse back to the mark. Carefully, Jinki poured his potion in a vial and corked it so that he could compare its dark red color to that of Kibum’s paint. They matched exactly and Jinki felt a little swell of pride.

“Perfect,” Kibum murmured.

“I’m so glad,” Minho said, “can we please get it out of me?”

“Don’t rush the process,” Kibum said.

He made five more slow strokes down Minho’s arm before whispering a spell for water and pouring it all over the paint. To the human eye, it started to fade, the color bleeding out, though the magic remained.

Jinki reached out, calling another vial to his hand. “Drink this first, to dull the pain. Then the curse potion.”

“You never said it was going to hurt,” Minho frowned, but he downed both of them successively, eyebrow raising in interest. “Do all the potions you make taste good?”

“Flavor is important,” Jinki sniffed, “but I can give you something that tastes like death if you want it that bad.”

Minho grimaced. “No, thank you.”

It took hours.

Taemin gripped Minho’s arm hard enough to bruise, first just keeping his mouth to the mark, whispering to it, singing to it. “He’s tricking it,” Jonghyun said, “convincing it that it will be better with him than with Minho. It will be easier to pull out if it’s a little bit willing to leave.”

“He’s _kissing_ my arm,” Minho muttered.

“He’s kissing the curse,” Jonghyun corrected, “stop being weird about it. You don’t see me getting jealous, do you?”

“I’m not _jealous_ ,” Minho spluttered, but that was the end of his coherent thoughts.

A strand of the mark had lifted from his arm, reaching towards the fairy’s face and Jinki sat by Minho, gripping his other hand. “Take a deep breath,” he warned.

There was a sudden flash of Taemin’s teeth, thinner than vampire’s fangs though no less pointy, and far more numerous. He latched onto the mark with a grin and then pulled; Minho yelped.

Taemin sucked out strings of magic like spaghetti, except it looked more like sticky taffy than pasta, Taemin’s lips staining the same color of the curse. It was actually a little gross, and Jinki decided to just watch Minho instead.

“You’re doing great,” Jinki said.

“ _Fucking pointy-toothed glitter bomb—“_ Minho gasped, as Taemin yanked on the curse, slurping loudly. Minho’s blood dripped to the floor and it mingled with Taemin’s incidental sparkles as the curse dug its heels into Minho’s skin.

“The glitter bomb is saving your life,” Jonghyun frowned, “Please refrain from name calling. It inhibits his appetite.”

Jinki brushed at Minho’s bangs. “You’re doing really, really, great.”

Even with his face contorted with pain, Minho was handsome. Maybe it wasn’t just his mouth that was charmed? Maybe all of Choi Minho was charmed. Maybe he was just plain charming.

This might require additional exploration after they were done breaking the curse.

Jinki squeezed Minho’s fingers as the swearing started and Minho promised vengeance for his pain on every thing and every one associated with the witch that had cursed him. It all sounded very un-lawful for a Bureau Wizard and Jinki had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing.

It took another hour before Taemin was done. A sheen covered Minho’s body and Jinki thought of the wicking spell he’d invented and banished the sweat on his skin to the toilet.

Kibum held a glass of water to his mouth. “Drink,” he urged. He refilled the glass magically twice before Minho was satisfied.

Jinki brushed at the wizard’s hair again, before carefully letting go of his hand. Minho’s grip had been hard but Jinki would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t like it; Minho’s hand was very nice. “How do you feel?”

“Terrible,” Minho croaked. “Like I’ve exhausted my magical reserves and someone broke my staff.”

Jinki had a potion for that. “Vivacity and magical restoration,” he said, after the vial flew to his hand. He’d never seen someone down a potion so fast in their life. “I doubt you’ll recover from this quickly.”

Minho tucked the vial into a pocket, smiling. _He’s charmed and I’ve fallen for him. I’m a mess. This is a total disaster_.

Jinki left Minho to space our for a little while and waved his hand over the wizard blood and fairy dust on the floor, clearing it away. He wished he could use it for potions but fairy dust was only magical for actual fairies or their bonded witches.

He didn’t expect Jonghyun or Taemin to stay and they didn’t, the witch giving a friendly wave before they popped away in a shower of pink dust. Kibum was quick to follow, pointedly dropping his little star charm back on the table and ignoring Jinki’s resigned sigh as he left.

Kibum would probably sweep in early tomorrow to check in on him. That was fine. Jinki would be fine.

“Your coven is nice,” Minho said. He didn’t look quite ready to get onto his feet. He was still holding Jinki’s hand and it was really lovely, now that his grip wasn’t tight enough to break bone. “You’re nice.” He frowned. “Did you drug me?”

Jinki chuckled. “No. You’re just exhausted.” He snapped the fingers of his free hand and held another potion to Minho’s lips. “You’re trembling. This will help.”

It took another half hour and several more potions before Minho was able to stand. He wouldn’t let of Jinki’s hand, seemed almost reluctant to let it go. Jinki was trying very hard not to be hopeful but it was difficult. He didn’t want Minho to leave either.

“What do I owe you?”

“Payment can be made in the form of you not mentioning that Jonghyun has bonded a fairy prince. You can also replace the ingredients for the potion since some of those are quite expensive. Also…”

Minho raised an eyebrow, as if to dare him, like he _knew_ ; Jinki reached up to grip the lapels of Minho’s jacket and tug him down. He was going to wait a moment, as they looked at each other, in case he was reading everything all wrong, but Minho didn’t let him.

His magic surged as Minho’s hands fell to his waist, mouth dipping down to brush at Jinki’s lips. He was trying to be gentle, but with the knowledge that Minho must have been looking at him as much as he has looked at Minho, Jinki wrapped a hand around the wizard’s neck and didn’t let him go, not until he felt his magic humming, the magic in the room thrumming, and there was a danger that things might start to levitate as he lost control.

“Come back for more of that,” Jinki said, finally pulling away, adding, “and other things.”

“Other things,” Minho echoed, dazed.

Jinki pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “That would make me happy.”

“Me too.”

“Maybe without a deadly curse, though.”

“Right. Yes. No more curses.”

“Are you feeling okay to teleport?”

Minho’s grin made Jinki’s stomach swoop—he was _so handsome_. “I’ll be fine, thanks to your potions. You’re a talented witch, Lee Jinki. I’ll be back. For kisses,” he promised, and touched their mouths together again, “and other things. But also for help.”

He fished in his pants pocket a moment and came out with a card with his name on it, shining the same aquamarine color as the gem in staff. “If you ever need a wizard’s aid, just say my name and hold your fingers over the letters. Or if you…are in need of a thorough kissing. I’ll be here.”

Jinki grinned. “I will.”

“Thank you so much, Lee Jinki. I’m forever indebted.”

It didn’t feel like a final kiss. Just a promise for more, sooner or later.

Minho left as he had come: through Jinki’s front door, the bell chiming. The star charm on the table let out a sad, low whistle and Jinki patted it. “Don’t worry, he’ll come back.”

He remembered the strange cloud of green smoke he’d been inspecting earlier and figured he might as well continue, since there was only an hour until his shop opened back up officially anyway. Who knew? Maybe he’d find it suspicious enough to call the Bureau for an opinion.

Jinki smiled to himself, as he made his way to the back of his shop. Sometimes, he thought, curses could be unbelievably useful.


End file.
